On Monday, January 31st, the Washington State Senate K-12 Education Committee will hold a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. on Senate Bill 5475, a recently submitted bill that includes a delay of inclusion of Highly Capable in the 2009 Education Reform Bill definition of basic education until 2013-2014. If SB5475 passes as currently written, highly capable programming would remain optional for districts to provide and vulnerable to funding cuts that basic education funds are not.
We urge you to at the least, contact members of the Senate K-12 Education Committee to let them know of your concerns with the passage of this new bill as written. This committee is chaired by District 1 Senator Rosemary McAuliffe and has District 44 Senator Steve Hobbs as a member. Both of these legislators represent families in the Edmonds School District, and we are working on scheduling meetings with them on Gifted Education Day. You can directly email any legislator from the legislature’s website. The website will ask for your address to validate your district and will alert you if the legislator you wish to email does not represent your district. You will then be given the option to email your legislators or send a message to the original addressee.
The hearing on Monday is for public comment. The email campaign to members of the House Ways and Means Committee was noticed and credited by members of that committee for saving funding for highly capable programming in the House budget. It is frustrating to have to continue to press the case for gifted education when there is a law waiting in the wings to give it the level of protection families of gifted students have been asking for, but another hurdle has been added and it is up to us squeaky wheels to squeak a little louder.
If it is possible for you to attend this meeting and make public comment on this bill, please follow these links for details on how and where to testify.
Committee Agenda and Meeting Location
Basic Information on Visiting the Legislature and List of Related Links